1. Reaching adolescents through their peers
September 2016
Reaching adolescents through their peers
Dr V Chandra-Mouli
With inputs from Marija Delas
(young person/peer educator)
Training Course in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research
Geneva 2016

2. Key statement 1 Peer relationships are one of the defining features of adolescence. Early adolescence (10-13 years) – affiliation Middle adolescence (14-16 years) identification Older adolescence (17-19 years) peer relationships recede in favour of individual friendships
In early adolescence, boys and girls affiliate themselves with peers of the same age.
In middle adolescence, this relationship becomes even stronger. Boys and girls identify with their peer group.
The peer group defines their thoughts and actions.
In older adolescence, the importance of the peer group recedes in favour of individual friendships.

3. Key statement 2 Peer relationships are very important to adolescents
Key statement 2 Peer relationships are very important to adolescents. Being popular with their peers triggers a stronger positive response in adolescents than in adults.
Being accepted and appreciated by the peer group they want to be part is very important to adolescents.

4. Key statement 3 Peer relationships contribute to emotional and social development in adolescents. They shape who they are and who they want to be They help adolescents to: - Learn how to interact with others - Observe how others deal with their challenges and problems - Give and get support
Peer relationships provide adolescents a valuable forum to learn from others who are going through similar life changes.
They help prepare adolescents for adulthood with:
Self awareness and self management
Social awareness and social management (i.e. managing their interpersonal relationships)

5. Key statement 4
Peer relationships contribute to healthy and pro-social behaviours, and to unhealthy and anti-social ones.
Adolescents are more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol, use illicit drugs and have early, unsafe sexual activity if members of their peer groups do so.
Similarly, they are more likely to bully, vandalize and disrespect driving rules, if their peer group members do so.

6. Key statement 5 All of us – children, adolescents and adults – face peer pressure. The more important it is for an adolescent to belong to a peer group, the more susceptible he/she is to peer pressure.
To identify themselves with a peer group or to be accepted by one, adolescents may engage in unhealthy behaviours and antisocial activities.
Adolescents who perceive that they have to earn their place in their group, or to prove themselves to be allowed to stay in their group feel more under pressure to do this.

7. Key statement 6 Adults should help adolescents understand and deal with peer pressure.
Adolescents are developing cognitively, emotionally and socially.
On the one hand, they want to be autonomous. On the other hand, they want to belong to a peer group.
Adults can play a key role here by:
Considering the pros and cons of what they peers are doing or asking them to do.
Helping them understand how the physical presence of their peers as well as their influence even when absent, affects their thoughts and feelings.
- Helping them understand the role emotions play in decision making; and to avoid making important decisions when they feel emotionally charged – very happy, sad or angry.

8. Key statement 7 Through peer-led education – information, attitudes and values, and behaviours can be taught and shared.
In peer education, individuals teach others like themselves i.e. people of similar ages and social status.

9. Key statement 8 Peer education is a popular alternative or complement to adult-led health education approaches. It enables: - Information exchange and open discussion between adolescents of similar age and social status - Opportunities for repeated contact in a friendly context - Access to those who are hard to reach through traditional adult-led health-education approaches
Adolescents share information on sensitive matters with their peers. They also find it easy to turn to them for advice and help on sensitive matters.
Because of this policy makers, progamme managers and funder are ready and willing to support peer education.

10. Key statement 9
The effectiveness of peer-education in increasing safe behaviours/reducing risky behaviours is limited.
" Five meta-analyses of the assessments of peer education programmes implemented over many years in different contexts have concluded that while these programmes result in information sharing, on their own, they have very limited effects in promoting healthy behaviours and in improving health outcomes among target groups".
Reference:
V Chandra-Mouli, C Lane, S Wong. What Does Not Work in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Evidence on Interventions Commonly Accepted as Best Practices. Global Health: Science and Practice

11. Key statement 10 Adult-led education programmes can provide accurate information, answer questions and clarify misconceptions. Peer-led education programmes could complement this through discussion and interpretations in the context of adolescents' lives.
Peer-led education programmes could play a useful role as part of a multi-faceted health education strategy.

12. Key statement 11 Y-PEER – the UNFPA-led youth education network provides a useful forum for information exchange among organization doing/supporting peer-led education programmes. It also provides a four-part tool kit for managers and trainers of peer-education programmes.
The following note was prepared by Marija Delas a medical student from Croatia who is doing an internship with WHO. Marija has worked with Y-Peer herself.
Y-PEER, the Youth Peer Education Network, is a groundbreaking and comprehensive youth-to-youth initiative pioneered by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The network consists of more than 700 non-profit organizations, schools and governmental institutions, and we are expanding. Y-PEER members include thousands of young people from different countries across the regions in Eastern Europe, North and East Africa, the Middle East, Central and Asia and Pacific.
Vision: Young people have meaningful participation in decision-making related to their own health in order to have equal access to information and services to live healthy, content life.
Mission: Y-PEER aims to promote a healthy lifestyle through peer to peer approach and to empower young people to make responsible decisions.
Specifically, Y-PEER members adapt Y-PEER resource materials to specific local settings relevant to the language and context of the audience; network with youth organizations and youth participation in policy development at all levels; advocate for improved SRH of young people; and ensuring inclusion of services and testing for youth most-at-risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV; and document and report country to country peer education initiatives to create evidence of success in the field of meaningful youth participation and youth-adult partnership.
The Peer Education Toolkit is a group of resources designed to help program managers and master trainers of peer educators. Collectively, these tools should help develop and maintain more effective peer education programs. All parts of the toolkit are based on research and evidence from the field as well as local examples and experiences. They are designed to be adapted locally as needed.
The manual is composed of four main sections:
Section 1 From Theory to Practice in Peer Education reviews the definition of peer education and its rationale and value in the context of different behavior change theories and models.
Section 2 Guidelines for Training of Trainers: A Curriculum provides the outline of a suggested six-day training of trainers (TOT) workshop. For each of the training topics, the curriculum provides appropriate training exercises and notes. The exercises are described in detail so that they can be reproduced easily in future trainings.
Section 3 A Sample Peer Education Session on HIV/AIDS presents an example of a peer education activity for use in the field. It describes a three- to four-hour HIV/AIDS education session that can be presented to a group of adolescents.
Section 4 Participant Handouts includes 20 handouts that are used in the six-day training.
Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education
This manual has five sections:
Section 1 Starting with the Basics provides an overview of the historical and theoretical use of theatre in education, makes the case for using theatre as a means to educate young people about reproductive health and HIV issues, and explains the authors’ approach to developing improvisational theatre pieces.
Section 2 Four Peer Theatre Training Workshops, the core of this manual, is a curriculum for training actor/peer educators, developing theatre pieces, and practicing post-performance debriefings with audience members.
Section 3 More Theatre Games and Exercises provides additional training tools to help improve peer educators’ acting and improvisational skills.
Section 4 Advanced Peer Theatre Programmes offers information on building a theatre company, casting and rehearsing theatre pieces, directing, and other issues faced by organizations developing full-length peer theatre pieces and taking them on the road.
Section 5 Annexes includes a list of theatrical terms for peer education, a handout about the stages of adolescence, suggested resources, and sources.
The term ‘theatre in education’ refers to using theatre for a purpose beyond entertaining an audience. This purpose is generally to change the knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors (or perhaps all three) of audience members. In the context of this manual, the goal of theatre in education is to improve young people’s reproductive health, to prevent HIV, and to reduce the stigma and discrimination that come with unintended pregnancy or HIV infection.
Y-PEER uses a pyramid training model, which empowers youth to pass on knowledge, skills, and practical expertise as new young people join a peer education programme. This model also provides a system
for continuous training and recognizes commitment and excellence of individuals.
 LINKS:
Y-PEER Brochure

13. Peer-education programmes encounter many practical challenges in:
Key statement 12
Peer-education programmes encounter many practical challenges in:
- Recruiting the right persons to be peer-educators
- Retaining them
- Replacing them (when they leave)
- Training them to educate their peers effectively
- Monitoring their work and supporting them, especially when they face challenges in their work
The Geracao Biz (Busy Generation) programme in Mozambique is facing and dealing with these challenges. It provides useful lessons.
The Geracao Biz's (Busy Generation) aims are: ‘To improve Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, including a reduction in the incidence of early and unintended pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus infections, through activities that equip young people with the knowledge, skills and services needed for positive behaviour change.’
Geracao Biz is a multisectoral programme involving three sectors – health, education, and youth and sports. Government staff from each of these sectors worked with community-based organizations, including youth organizations, and young people to deliver three complementary interventions entwined with each other - youth friendly clinical services, school-based education and community-based outreach.
The Programme's work to involve adolescents and young people is described in very nice document:
J Matsinhe. Programa Geracao Biz. Investing in youth: The story of a national sexual and reproductive health programme for adolescents and youth in Mozambique. UNFPA, Maputo